Cassie dumped her knapsack on the kitchen floor and opened the fridge door, sticking her head inside and looking for something to eat.

“I’m home!” she yelled, her voice mostly muffled by a half empty gallon of milk and mysterious tupperware and take out containers. She opened a white paper container, poking at the beef and broccoli in congealed sauce inside, and folded the lid back together, stashing it back in the fridge. She made an attempt on the freezer, and found a pint of ice cream to her liking. She heard the swinging door between the kitchen and dining room open as she was rummaging a spoon out of the silverware drawer, and turned around. Her uncle Theo was there, wiping paint off his hands.

“Hey,” he said.

“I thought you had a thing,” he said.

“Yeah, well, nobody showed.” She jabbed the spoon into the ice cream. It was frozen too hard, and the spoon bent. She frowned and pulled it out, tried to straighten it. Theo reached for the spoon.

“I got it,” he said. “Stick that in the microwave for like 30 seconds. That oughtta soften it up real good.”

She held the ice cream between her hands.

“Nah. It’ll soften on its own just fine.” She looked up at him.

“What was school like for you?”

“I never went to school.”

“So you, what, you were homeschooled?”

“Nah, babygirl. I never went to no kinda school.”

“What about mom?”

“Nothin for her until she got her GED. She took classes for that, and got some college after.”

“How is that, I mean, how is that possible? To grow up in the USA and not go to school at all?”

“Me an your ma… we were in a real shitty situation.”

“She never talked about being a kid.”

“Yeah. That’s on accounta she never got to be a kid. That’s somethin your dad gave her, a chance to feel young and not worry about nothin. Until his family found out about her, anyway.”

“Yeah, well, they’re assholes and I hate them.”

Theo shook his head.

“If they called up and said they was around the corner and you should come out and meet ’em, you’d be out the door before they finished the sentence.”

She walked over to the fridge and shoved the ice cream back into the freezer.

“Yeah, well, what can I say. It’s nice living someplace that has no corpses.”

She stalked off upstairs, leaving Theo in the kitchen holding a bent spoon.

Cassie kicked the door closed with a big slam. She opened it up and slammed it again. And then again. And then once more.She didn’t think anyone was home, so she literally jumped when someone cleared their throat behind her. She turned and saw Uncle Theo standing at the fridge, a dark blue bottle of […]

Hob grew up in a whore house in Belletown, her mother being the Mistress of the House. When she was 11, her father, a spy masquerading successfully as a traveling actor, was very surprised to find that he had a child. She joined him and his long time partner, her “uncle,” and their troupe and […]